Python Development Environment

All of the examples in this book use the tool uv to manage Python library installation and running Python programs.

Here are a few things to consider when setting up your Python development environment:

  • Use uv as your primary tool for managing Python versions, virtual environments, and package dependencies. It is very fast and replaces older tools like pip, venv, and conda.
  • Use Git or another version control system to manage your codebase. I will not cover Git here so read a good tutorial if you have not used it before.
  • Use an IDE like PyCharm or VSCode, or a text editor like Emacs or Vim — whatever you are comfortable with.
  • Keep your environment and dependencies up-to-date.
  • Add comments and documentation to your code. Your “future you” will thank you.

Managing Python with uv

I use uv exclusively for managing Python versions and installed libraries. Developed by Astral, uv is an extremely fast Python package and project manager written in Rust. It serves as a drop-in replacement for pip, pip-tools, pipx, poetry, pyenv, virtualenv, and more.

Install uv by following the instructions on the official uv website. On macOS and Linux:

1 curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Setting Up a Project

Every source code directory in this book follows the same pattern: initialize a project with uv init --bare, add the required libraries with uv add, and run scripts with uv run. Here is a typical setup:

1 # Initialize a new project (creates pyproject.toml)
2 $ uv init --bare
3 
4 # Add libraries the project needs
5 $ uv add scikit-learn pandas
6 
7 # Run a script — uv creates a virtual environment automatically
8 $ uv run my_script.py

The uv run command handles everything: it creates a virtual environment if one does not exist, installs the dependencies listed in pyproject.toml, and runs your script. You never need to manually activate a virtual environment.

Managing Python Versions

uv also acts as a Python version manager. If you specify a Python version that is not installed on your system, uv will automatically download and install it:

1 $ uv python install 3.12

Code Formatting (Optional)

I recommend black for automatic code formatting and isort for import sorting:

1 uv pip install black isort
2 black *.py
3 isort *.py

Up next

Part 1 - Machine Learning